And over the course of its first two albums, it seemed that what the band liked was change.

The United Kingdom quintet made its debut with the driving math rock of 2008’s “Antidotes,” but switched things up two years later. 2010’s “Total Life Forever” was a far more ethereal collection, trading the first album’s relentless pacing for expansive space jams.

In February, the Oxford-based five-piece released “Holy Fire.” On it, the band was able to successfully reconcile the divergent sounds of their first two records. Even though it wasn’t an easy process, the third time, was indeed a charm.

“It was intimidating,” said bassist Walter Gervers by phone from Buenos Aires. The band was there doing a one-off between Lollapalooza dates in Chile and Brazil. “We knew from the start it was going to be an incredibly difficult record to make. But I think we got it in the end. Records are boring when they do the same thing from start to finish. Ones that are a roller-coaster ride are infinitely more exciting.”

Foals

Helping them in the process were super-producers Flood and Alan Moulder (U2, Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters). And for a band notoriously cagey when it comes to outsiders and their music — they publicly chastised producer Dave Sitek for his work on “Antidotes” — collaborating with two of rock’s biggest behind-the-board names went amazingly well.

“We’re always going to be very controlling,” Gervers said. “Whenever we work with other people, there’s an element of conflict. Not to say we had much with Flood and Moulder. That was a very pleasant and amazing experience. But there has to be that push and pull. We knew we had to let them in to get the most out if it. And compared to others, we really did. We got that balance right.”

What’s proving to be a bit more difficult is incorporating the new songs into the set list every night. The band insists on an organic re-creation of all the album’s sounds in the live setting — something that takes a bit of trial and error.

“We want a natural feel,” Gervers said. “We’re trying to work out how to play all of these songs without any trickery. We don’t want to re-create the songs as if you’re standing next to a giant CD player. We want things to be a bit stranger when we’re playing it live.”

In addition to back-to-back weekends in Indio, and a stop at Porter’s Pub in La Jolla on Monday night, Foals will spend the rest of 2013 touring the globe. That will give Gervers and the band plenty of chances to reconcile the natural sound, and to get comfortable with the new material.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “And it’s quite tricky. But we’re still trying to refine it. I think we’re just coming around to the idea that we can build a set that doesn’t have to be relentless from start to finish. We can allow ourselves moments where we can put in some mood. And we’re enjoying that. We just want to make sure we can play it properly live.”